Come as you are. Leave with your light turned all the way up.

For people who are used to holding it all together for everyone else, our retreats are a place to come back to yourself.

What this is

Enjoy the Journey runs multi-day retreats in nature, primarily at off-season YMCA camps, where there is more water, sky and forest than anything else.

We are also among the most affordable retreats you will find. The Y camps in their off-season are rustic and inviting at the same time, and they let us keep the cost down while we nourish ourselves in nature, with hot meals and safe lodging. A three-day, two-night retreat with five meals included is $444 at the Early Bird rate, $555 after.

Between retreats we keep a year-round community going: Sacred Sunday Yoga, free and online every Sunday morning, wherever you are. A weekly letter. And people who keep showing up for each other long after the weekend ends.

What the name means

Our founder, Kate Lemay, says it plainly: enjoying the journey is not about superficial positivity. It is about learning to embrace the bumps, take the lessons, find personal power, and become a better human along the way. It is the journey, not the destination, that matters.

We live in a culture organized around outcomes – promotions, finish lines, the next thing. We are interested in the middle, which is to say in your actual life. Fulfillment is found in how you live, love, create and serve along the way, and a retreat is time set aside to practice that on purpose.

How it started

Kate Lemay founded Enjoy the Journey. How and why is a story about an artist’s journey, soul depths, channeled miracles and alchemized angst — and it is a story worth hearing from Kate herself, at a retreat.

Before ETJ was formed, Kate and Christina Alexa ran a retreat together for seven years, alongside other inspired community leaders including Lani Voivod: the Live in Love Retreats on Sandy Island, out on Lake Winnipesaukee, still the flagship location for ETJ. Then Covid arrived, life pulled in other directions, and Christina went quiet for a while. Kate kept going. She built Enjoy the Journey on her own, ran the first year by herself, and then brought on a retreat leader in each of the first seven states.

In January 2025 she asked Christina to partner with her, and they formed the company together. Since then Enjoy the Journey has both grounded and expanded, through the hearts and hands of many – including seven new retreats in seven new states, one more step toward Kate’s vision of forty-nine retreats in forty-nine states.

Kate is the founder and the artist. Every retreat theme begins with her work: the imagery, the prompts, the message and the mantra, the original artwork in the card deck. Christina finds joy in organizing structure and content with the team: the leadership agreements, the policies, the writing, the scaffolding that lets a growing thing stay coherent.

Still a work in progress. That has always been the point.

What happens at a retreat

Several days in one place, with a rhythm that holds both structure and spaciousness. Morning movement. Real food. Workshops through the middle of the day, creative time, and long stretches with nothing scheduled – rest by the water, an afternoon by the fire. Evenings of music, art or sharing, or standing outside looking up.

Woven through it:

Somatic practice. Yoga, breath and gentle movement, to settle the nervous system and return you to your body.

Guided inquiry. Honest investigation of the beliefs that stopped serving you some time ago, and practices sturdy enough to survive the drive home.

Creative expression. Painting, collage, and Kate’s original prompts, which have a way of getting past the inner critic before it notices.

The chakra lens. A practical map rather than a mystical one, for noticing where you are holding and what is asking for attention.

Circles. Small groups, real conversation, and the particular relief of saying a true thing out loud to people who receive it.

You are held by experienced facilitators and a clear code of care: confidentiality, consent, compassion.

No previous experience with yoga, art or personal development is required. A willing heart and comfortable shoes.

You are the most important person here

You will not find famous names on this page. No visiting author, no podcaster, no personality on tour. That is deliberate.

The teachings we carry were passed to us, and we pass them on. The content runs deep and the container is strong, built over years and held by leaders trained to hold it. But none of that is the point. You are the point. We hold the container and do the work; what happens inside it belongs to you.

People feel the difference. They leave with open hearts, and often with real healing underway.

Who comes

We are seekers, leaders, healers and makers who want depth, levity, and fresh air more than we want more doing. Sometimes we are people in transition — a career turning, an identity transforming, grief, parenting, or a restlessness we can’t quite name. Some are working to get the outer life to match what is already known on the inside.

What is true. We leave clearer about what matters, calmer in our bodies, kinder to ourselves, and more connected — to the land, to purpose, and to the people who keep walking beside us every day.

In 2023 I was feeling very low — unhealthy, overwhelmed and alone. I decided to do something to shake my situation loose. I wanted a positive change. These retreats gave me clarity of purpose, taught me about healthy relationships through boundaries, showed me I had a voice and how to embrace the present and what’s possible.

I know these are tall claims. I am here to testify that they are very true. The beauty is in the rustic nature of the places, YMCA camps all. It’s designed to disconnect you from your world and put you somewhere simple, and allow you to pause and rest.

The magic is in the community, in the fellowship and the connections. And there is such magic. I have never felt more welcome, seen or supported than by the incredible people at these retreats. So here it is, 2026. I’ve been to 12 retreats so far and have more planned. I am healthier, happier, and I feel connected and included. I am now, more than ever before, enjoying the journey.

— Pam

What we believe

Presence over perfection. Progress is sacred. Perfection is optional.

Courageous curiosity. We ask better questions than we give advice.

Body wisdom. Your breath and your nervous system know the way home.

Community care. We rise by witnessing one another, celebrating one another, and challenging one another with love.

Service. Personal transformation is for the good of the whole.

On this earth walk

Every step of our growth we move through on this earth walk is not just for ourselves, but for our ancestors and for all of our relations.

And we give thanks.

Where to begin

Sit in on a Sunday. Sacred Sunday Yoga is free, online, every week – the simplest way to find out whether this is for you.

Or read along. Three original articles with audio land in our newsletter every week, plus other interesting updates.